Gourmet Coffee Beans Falling Prey to Fungus

5/14/2013 7:16PM

An orange-colored fungus called coffee-leaf rust has swept through coffee fields from Mexico to Panama, where some of the world’s rarest beans are grown, driving up prices. WSJ's Leslie Josephs reports via #WorldStream

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... I ... the kit the in the northern part of the country ... this looks behind me one of the few places in the world that specialty coffee is grown ... abundant sunshine ... abundant rainfall and cold may ... produce a high quality coffee ... but it read a plant disease called coffee we trust has spread through Central America Mexico ... threatening production of these rare beans ... and it seems like the fifty s him as man of the coffee farm ... could soon become even fiercer as the disease spread ... output from Central America is expected to fall by sixteen percent this season ... this is a fungus it's orange and yellow colored scores Crowell coffee tree leaves causing them to fall ... that cuts up the food supply for carries the seeds are what we know is coffee beans ... this is bad news for specialty coffee roasters and cafes like us the cemetery ... was Brooklyn roasting plant can be seen here ... coffee buyers like hell when you knew of New York-based Guinea coffee travel thousands of miles to the perfect team ... she says she's already starting to see the tennis I was I didn't really know what to expect ... and I didn't see ... that ... some very very devastating fire ... the things that ... that looked like it went from coal ... in July when many are too ... decided to seize fire spree fungicide in many cases here it's already too late ... it will instead have to replace the coffee trees with more rust resistant varieties ... and because it takes at least three years for coffee trees to produce fruit ... the effects of the season production could be long lasting ... some words to say they're already seen higher prices for certain Central American team since the disease spreads ... the trend that could become even more pronounced next year ... for those that were still producing areas that were still affected by drought and a bit of quality was much lower ... it means that farmers are going to get a ... price premium ... for their coffee in general and that they have a lot less quantity as well so they're ... they're very much a case by a different tack ... the Wall Street Journal A look at the Panama Mrs Leslie justice ...